This proposal requests a supplement to the Diabetes Research Center grant awarded to the University of Pennsylvania (AM-19525) for a 3-year period beginning March 1, 1977, and a 1-year extension in the total project period. The purpose of the supplement is to make possible the rapid development of a viable and effective DRC, and to meet requirements for this purpose that have been altered as the results of actions taken by this institution in response to the specific criticisms contained in the Summary Statement of the review of the original application . Administrative permission to request a 1-year extension in the project period in this application for a supplement was requested, and approved, to permit at least a 1-year interval between the initiation of this supplement (if approved) and an application for renewal of AM-19525, which would permit a reasonable period for the assessment of progress. The DRC has as its major research objectives multidisciplinary investigations of the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and its complications with the long-term goal of developing and evaluating new therapeutic approaches to these problems. The DRC program is designed (1) to facilitate and encourage the development of new interdisciplinary research programs and the involvement of established investigators not previously active in this field, (2) to assist the development of younger faculty members with primary training in diverse clinical and basic sciences who devote themselves to careers in diabetes mellitus related research, (3) to assist in the recruitment of new investigators to fill identified deficits in the overall research program, (4) to provide coordination of the planning and execution of the overall research program in diabetes, and of its related educational and research training programs, (5) to provide core support for the DRC research program through the provision of core facilities and services, (6) to provide an efficient mechanism for the development and evaluation of new research initiatives and support of pilot projects of high scientific merit, (7) to provide a means for evaluating the quality of the overall research program to insure its continued productivity, and (8) to provide a means fr the dissemination of new information.